Alex Ovechkin is the most exciting player in the National Hockey League, according to a recent Yahoo Sports/YouGov survey of hockey fans in the United States. Twenty-six percent of respondents said the Russian dynamo is a “must-see” player, the poll reports, which outranks his peers.
Ovechkin beat out Sidney Crosby, who fans selected 24 percent of the time in the survey, and Patrick Kane, who was checked off 19 percent of the time.
Despite beating out 19 of the league’s stars included in the survey, Ovechkin was not the most popular choice among respondents. Instead, 31 percent of them said they “don’t consider any players to be ‘must-see’ players.”
Fans were allowed to select up to four skaters, including superstar phenom “other,” along with the none of above option. Goaltenders were not included.
Here are the full results:
Yahoo Sports/You Gov
When broken down by gender, the numbers vary wildly, in part because more women do not consider any players “must-see.” Among male survey respondents, a third judged Ovechkin to be appointment viewing. Thirty percent said the same about Crosby. Among women, Kane was the most popular player.
You can take a deeper dive into the data, including how the results break down by age here.
